Meghalaya to ease COVID-19 restrictions from Feb 11. Details here

Shillong: Following a drop in positivity rate across the state, the Meghalaya Cabinet on Wednesday decided to ease COVID-19 restrictions starting February 11. Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma said that double vaccinated persons will no longer require an RT-PCR test to enter the state.

The chief minister also said that night curfew, imposed between 10 pm and 5 am at present, will now be lifted in Meghalaya. At present, classes 6-12 have offline classes in Shillong, but the government has now allowed physical presence for classes 1-5, especially in Shillong.

For funerals, no permission will be required but COVID protocols need to be followed along with the number of people. As for large gatherings, public meetings, weddings and processions, permissions have been granted which was done few weeks back. Persons would only require to get permission from the Deputy Commissioner or the SDO and numbers will be decided by them based on the venue where the function will take place.

The chief minister also reiterated that only double vaccinated people will be allowed in bars, restaurants and movie theaters and vehicles will continue to ply on odd and even basis.

“All of these decisions will be effective from Friday, February 11 onwards,” Sangma said. 

The CM said that the ongoing wave of COVID-19 in the state has seen that the lives lost were not directly COVID related (even though tested positive) but due to other serious conditions. “Keeping all of these factors in mind, we are seeing a trend based on facts and figures, and the numbers are reducing. The positivity rate is going down, number of deaths is far less than earlier,” said Sangma. 

The government has taken these decisions trying to balance the safety and health of the people and also the economic activities, the government felt that normalcy must return. “We can’t let our guards down fully, but we will take precautions. We also need to ease overall restrictions so that normalcy must return,” said Sangma.

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